Month: June, 2012

by mollykl

by mollykl

The end of the school year is here….and we’ve managed to survive. It has not been easy. Son J did not, shall we say, acclimate to school well. He’s a smart kid, but he has the focus of a Labrador, and that’s being unkind to labs. It has been a constant struggle to find out what works for him and what doesn’t, and to make him understand why he has to do things he thinks are boring . (That last part is particularly hard when you don’t quite grasp the concept yourself).

But he did it: he managed to make it through the school year without being kicked out and having to endure homeschooling by a woman who can only talk about history, Jane Austen and evolutionary epidemiology.

The fact is that things around here finished a damn sight better than they started, so today we’re celebrating!

by mollykl

I’d like to be able to say that I’m above judging women by using this word: but let’s be honest. Hell no I’m not. This pic made me re-think that however.

I’ve always had men as friends and now I work with a lot of young men. I smile indulgently at their behavior, so why do I roll my eyes in disgust at the same behavior from women? Nice double standard there. In fact, the same damn double standard that’s been prevalent for years and it turns out I’m just as guilty of it as others.

Here’s what a slut really is: a women who’s not interested in conforming to a moral code set upon her by society. She may not consciously know that. She may not have a sense of the hypocrisy of allowing men to do whatever they want, whenever and however, while women are shunned for the same behavior. She may realize it and not care.

But if I judge her then I’m not allowed the luxury of indignation when a man uses the word. And when any double standard of equality between the sexes exists I have no one to blame but myself.

by mollykl

…yeah, but with apologies to Eleanor Roosevelt, to whom this quote is oft attributed, I call bullshit.

People can totally make you feel inferior WITHOUT your permission, even if you walk into a situation head held high, knowing you are doing a good job and that you can pretty much take on the world.

Because THAT’S WHAT PEOPLE DO. No, this is not one of my “people suck” posts. This is just how it is.

You can be beaten down by the world. You don’t have to acquiesce. But it might still happen. It happens in small increments – a comment that is just this side of judgmental about how you’ve chosen to raise your kid, a passing comment said as a jest about your ass or a “why did you do that” about your job. Don’t think that an overabundance of self-esteem is going to help that. Also, don’t think that a smattering of logic will help either. It won’t.